Episode 2 Paul Martin's Handmade Revolution

Today's society is a throwaway society

and we've all got ourselves into a rut

where we prize the cheap, the disposable and the mass-produced.

I want to celebrate the beautiful, the long-lasting, the handmade

and I need your help.

So come on, join me, Paul Martin, and my handmade revolution.

THEY CHEER

This is a call to action, from John O'Groats to Land's End -

we want to celebrate the handmade.

It's just so much more exciting than mass-produced stuff.

You don't want that.

The most talented makers are here

and we'll be finding out how valuable their items could be.

It's more than a hobby for me - it's a passion.

But these people don't know that one of them will be given

a life-changing opportunity...

I can't climb trees forever. I'm not as young as I once was.

..the chance to see their work at the spiritual home of the handmade.

I can now reveal who the judges' favourite is.

Today's programme comes from the Amberley Heritage Centre in Sussex,

the most wooded county in England.

Oak, ash and yew have all played their noble part in construction

and furniture making, whilst the more subtler of the woods -

willow, elder and hazel - have all traditionally been used

in craft skills and today there's a dedicated group of people here

all committed to keeping these traditional skills alive.

Later on, you can learn about narrow-boat art

from a formidable teacher.

Right, leave it. Don't fiddle with it.

-It's a bit better.

-OK!

But first, hundreds of talented makers applied

and they've been whittled down to just five finalists

who will present their best work to a panel of discerning judges.

Mary Jane Baxter is a milliner

on a mission to find the next big thing...

I know there's real talent out there.

There's so many brilliant British makers.

I can't wait to see what we find.

..Piyush Suri is a designer and entrepreneur

with ten years' experience, who's not afraid to speak his mind...

There's a revival in handmade all across Britain

and I absolutely love being a part of it.

..and head judge Glenn Adamson

is a curator at one of the world's top museums.

He's at the forefront of his field and eager to spot new talent.

This country has such a rich tradition of craft

and I'm hoping to meet people

who are carrying that on into the 21st century.

Glenn's keen to get it right because there's a lot at stake.

This is an opportunity which could make or break careers.

The maker named as judges' favourite

will see their piece go on display

in the prestigious Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

What better for an amateur

to see their work displayed alongside the masters?

Everyone here is a signed up member of the handmade revolution,

all determined to keep our traditional skills alive.

But for one lucky maker, this day could change their lives.

It's time to let the judges loose.

Lucy Levenson was originally a professional photographer

but she's now turned her attention to full-time making,

as Mary Jane is hearing.

Lucy, you've got a lovely cushion with you.

-Did this come from your own sofa?

-Yes, it did.

-I'm guessing that you made it?

-Yes, I did make it.

What's it all about? I love the colour in it.

Well, it's just childlike imagination.

Just going mad with the different colours.

I can see that colour is very much your thing

because looking at your picture behind us,

it's so vivid - that's the first thing I noticed about it.

Why do you choose such colourful work?

I think because I worked with black and white for so long

that I thought...

I also have a daughter with special needs

and visually she likes to look at things

that are very bright and bold.

So is that how you got into crafting?

-I think your daughter you look after full-time.

-Yes, yes.

No, she was ill so I needed something to take the stress...

And it just lifts you, it just makes you feel so much better.

Do you find it not necessarily a therapy,

but do you find it helps you get through the days?

Yes, I would say that this has probably saved me,

to be honest, from having...

You know, people who have got children with problems,

you need that outlet or something otherwise you'd just go insane

so putting all this into this just gives you that little outlet.

Tell me how you make a picture like that?

It's got a lovely texture to it, all sorts of different colours, papers...

I paint all the flowers separately

and then I go and find all these lovely papers,

you know, hunt shops out

or sometimes I find recycled paper and then I will get cereal packets.

Cereal packets?! So that's what you use for your patterns?

I use cereal packets for patterns...

-So you have to get through a lot of cereal!

-A lot of cereal!

-This is really a modern application of decoupage.

-Yes, I suppose, yes.

Which I think started back in the 12th century or so

and the Chinese used to use it. It meant "to cut out".

They cut out paper and used it on lanterns and windows.

And then again in the 18th and 19th centuries,

you had your very nice ladies of the middle and upper classes

who would do decoupage as a way of passing the time,

-just like you, Lucy!

-Exactly.

So tell me a little bit more about where your inspiration comes from.

Do you love animals, wildlife?

Well, we're surrounded by forest, where we live, by deer

so obviously I see deer with antlers all the time

and also I did archaeology for a while and I love archaeology

and I go back to thinking of things like the Celtic art

and also I love children's paintings -

you know how they just use these bold colours.

-It's not subtle work, is it?

-No, it's not subtle!

It's very, sort of, out there.

And I notice you've got a little label on the back of your cushion,

so you're obviously selling your work.

Yes, people tend to say, "Oh, could you make me one of those?"

They see it in my house, "Oh, could you make me one," you know?

So what do you sell a cushion like this for?

At first, it was not selling it for very much and somebody said,

"You can't sell it for, like, £20," so now I sell them for about 45, 50.

That sounds like a reasonable amount

because I think a lot of people starting out undersell their work.

They feel happy to be selling at all,

but I think £45-£50 would be about right for something like this.

Get rid of those little stray threads there, Lucy.

Stop pulling my cushion!

-It's great. Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

I love the boldness of Lucy's work and her costing is bang on.

Besides, you can't underestimate the therapeutic power of art.

People are so fed up with manufactured stuff

and now they're going back to basics again

and just wanting beautiful handmade things again

that, you know, somebody's heart and soul has gone into.

Why don't you have a go at creating something yourself?

It really is quite fitting that there is a strong woodworking theme

here today at Amberley given its setting.

As well as the Greenwood Village, with its traditional bodging skills,

the West Sussex Woodturners also have a permanent home here

and they've set up shop today in this marquee

to encourage people to wood turn - some for the very first time.

-This is Tom Bradbury, the man to talk to. Hello, Tom.

-Hello, Paul.

How long has the group been together?

-We've been together 25 years.

-Gosh.

-What are you making today?

-This is a snowman.

-A snowman?

And I know you're hanging everything on this tree here, aren't you?

-We are.

-And this is another Tom -

-the youngest member of the team here. So how old are you?

-I'm 15.

And how long have you been turning wood?

-I've been turning for six years now.

-Have you really?

-You must be the envy of all your schoolmates.

-Yeah.

Do they ask you to make things for them?

Some people do for presents, yeah.

And what's the best thing you've ever made?

I've made a nice, big platter

and I've done a cake stand with a hollow twist.

-Wow. Was that for mum?

-No, it was for a competition.

-And you won, did you?

-Yes.

-Oh, well done, you.

Have you got any advice to people

that want to start turning wood for the first time?

-They can join any club.

-All over the country?

Yeah, anywhere. They can come down to Amberley Museum

and other museums like this and have a go.

Well, as you can see, look, it's open to anybody -

get involved, get down here and have a go. It is so rewarding.

From one product using trees to one inspired directly by them.

First of the day for Piyush is Janette Lazell,

a 49-year-old garden designer.

Will she have a winning design?

I love the leaves.

Are you using the traditional methods of hammer and anvil?

I use a hammer and anvil. I do forging to make these.

I'm trying to visualise you with a hammer and anvil, you know?

You wouldn't want to see me - I've got my earmuffs and my glasses!

You wouldn't want to visualise that! It's brilliant.

I love it. I love blacksmithing. It's really good fun.

I just like the fact that you can have something

that's really plain and hard

and you can bend it and make it do what you want.

You know, it's just lovely.

Tell me a little bit more about the process -

like, how much time does it take, what temperatures do you fire on...?

I go to a blacksmith and he lets me go there and use his facilities.

I came up with the idea for the tree and he just leaves me alone,

but if I get stuck, he'll come and hold something for me

-or he'll give me some guidance.

-Why trees?

Before I started making them,

I did garden design and I did some garden shows.

When I came up with the ideas for the designs,

I had to commission the artists and photographers and people

and I just found it really interesting, their world,

their whole new area that I'd never thought of really,

so talking to them made me think that, actually, rather than doing

garden design, I'd quite like to do things to go in the garden.

I tried to find things that'd be durable,

that would be good for outside.

Of course, they are durable because of the metal,

but they look very delicate so is this the biggest scale you go to,

or you have done bigger sculptures?

No, this is my baby! This was the first one I did.

Since then, I just can't stop making them.

For me it was a way of learning more about trees

so I go and collect the trees, collect the leaves in the autumn

and it makes me learn about the trees and about leaves.

So if I find an oak leaf or there's loads of different oak leaves,

so it's really interesting seeing how different an oak leaf can be

and the material kind of mimics a leaf, really, I think.

Cos it's strong, but it's also quite delicate.

So how much time does it take to make?

I'm getting quicker, but they are quite time-consuming

because I don't like welding,

so I'm trying to do everything just by moving things in and out,

so sometimes it goes together quite well, like a puzzle,

-and other times it's a bit trickier.

-Is it a technical reason

not to like welding because a lot of metal,

like, forging, welding is involved in that?

I avoid it partly because I was a bit nervous of it,

partly because I'm not very good at it

and also when I started making the trees, I wanted them to grow

and I felt that by adding things on, they weren't growing,

so by weaving things into each other and twisting things,

it was almost like the tree was growing.

-Natural and organic?

-Yeah, I think so.

What is next? What's the next level

for you then? Do want to make it commercial?

Do you want to sell it or do you just want to keep it as a hobby?

I'd love to be able to sell them if I could.

Yeah, I sort of have visions of them

being in a room with all shadows and light...

I think it would be interesting to see the large-scale installation,

-a room full of trees, basically.

-I would love that.

I imagine in the right place, Janette's work would look wonderful.

Her aim is to sell her larger trees for up to £2,000.

But is her work good enough

to sit alongside some of the world's finest pieces?

I just thought, "It's a real challenge -

"just go for it, I might as well not pass anything up,"

and I didn't expect to be selected at all. I just thought,

"You've got to go for everything, just see what happens."

A traditional skill like blacksmithing

was essential to the nation for centuries

and it's great to see it alive and in a new form.

At the softer end of the scale,

another ancient skill is undergoing a bit of a revival.

Yarn bombers have joined my handmade revolution.

Knitting ne'er-do-wells have turned up

to show me how they approach crafting in a different way

-and I'm here to speak to Maria. Hello, Maria.

-Hello.

And I know we've got Amy, Louise and Chris

sitting down here, look, hard at work.

So tell me what you do and why do you do it?

-We do graffiti knitting and crochet.

-What's graffiti knitting?

Normally we go out in the middle of the night -

we're not normally out in the daylight -

and we'll decorate public areas, trees, statues...

And what happens? You just leave it there for a few days,

and people obviously notice it.

-Do they take bits off and take it home?

-Yeah, absolutely.

-And you don't mind that?

-Not at all - it's free art.

OK. It is literally free art.

And are you hoping to encourage more people to join your group?

Definitely. It's also about drawing attention to old crafts

and giving them a new form and a new, kind of, showcase.

These you've just knitted - what will you do with them?

Well, we're going to tie them to the railings over there.

People can take them home if they want to.

Do you know, it's a really nice idea

of decorating a rather bland urban space, isn't it?

Absolutely, yeah, and people can walk past statues and things

every day and take no notice.

We come along and give them some colour and...

-Did your mother and grandmother do skills like this?

-Yeah, absolutely.

Did they hand them down to you?

They did, but it's only been in the last year or so

I've really taken it up with the graffiti knitting.

Right, OK. Well, good luck. It's never too late, is it, really?

Free art, there you go!

Keep your eyes open throughout the show

to see what else gets hit by the yarn bomb!

From wool to wood.

David Bain is a 55-year-old forestry worker

whose profession and passion is wood,

which Mary Jane is keen to embrace.

So this is Blossom. What a pleasure to meet her, David.

She is very likeable, very lovable

and so real, I feel she's going to come snuffling up under my skirt.

She's very friendly, so if you wanted to touch her and smooth her,

-that would be fine.

-Well, she's a very tactile.

I really do want to give her a pet.

Talk to me about the skills you use in making a piece like this.

I think the first thing is the selection of the timber.

This is a piece of cedar.

The grain patterns in this are just so amazing.

And then what I try and do is use composites of other woods

that we collect to make up the tails, the bodies, the legs.

We've got corkscrew hazel here.

I have to say, that cheeky little tail is just adorable.

-Oh, absolutely.

-So does the hazel actually grow like this then?

It does, it forms itself

into some very tight, weird and wonderful shapes.

-Perfect for pigs' tails.

-Perfect for pigs' tails.

And do you go with what the wood offers you? Is that how you work?

Certainly. I try to incorporate those things where I can into it

so it's a much more natural effect.

So you start with a big block of wood,

where do you go from there?

Do you chainsaw it, do you use a lathe - how do you work?

I don't have a lathe big enough for this size material

-so we tackle this with a chainsaw.

-So it's a chainsaw first of all,

so a bit of rough cutting.

I've been using chainsaws for 30 years.

That's right because you come from a forestry background, don't you?

You're a tree surgeon, you work and train in the forests,

so really wood is very much part of your story.

Wood has been... I've climbed trees since the age of five

and I've sort of been lucky

that I've had 30 years of climbing trees as a professional as well.

But I've always been really intrigued, to...

There's so much character in the wood

that often they just stand out at me,

"That's got to be carved into this shape, it's got to be that."

The pigs...

Well, once I actually formed the first pig,

it was like a revelation, it really was.

That is so quirky, I actually liked it myself.

In the medieval period,

pigs were very much part of the woodland scene.

They foraged in the woods, they ate the acorns and cobnuts,

so given your woodland connection,

they do have a, sort of, part of that whole story.

I've not actually thought of it that way, but you're very right.

It is, it's a continuation of the circle, isn't it?

Absolutely, and you, too.

You're working in the modern forestry situation,

but the woodland bodgers a couple of hundred years ago -

they lived in the woods, they worked in the woods

and they did stuff like this

so really you're taking that tradition forward.

That's what I've really enjoyed

so it's really nice to get your hands on some hand tools

and go back to some of the traditional techniques.

-It's very, very therapeutic.

-Very therapeutic, but also very physical.

I mean, working with a big, solid material -

you have to have some strength to do it.

THEY LAUGH

Well, I think technique's probably more important!

-It's hitting it in the right place.

-Very, very good.

-Where do you see this going?

-I intend to keep on with these

and I'd like to really do something similar to here -

get family groups in, because we can walk around the woods,

we can choose our curly bits of tails, our ears to form up,

so I'm actually developing short little one-day courses

where, at the end of the day,

they should be able to take away their own produce, their own pig.

I'd love to come and make a pig on a course like that.

Go home with Blossom, it would be great.

David's pigs could easily sell for about £100 in a garden centre,

but what I love is his vision for sharing the forest with others,

and he's passing on a handmade tradition.

I've been really dumbfounded by the response from everybody,

so to be the judges' favourite as well would be absolutely phenomenal.

I can't climb trees forever. I'm not as young as I once was.

From one ancient wood skill to another.

One trade still being championed here is wheelwrighting.

Head judge Glenn is keen to get glimpses into this dying art.

I gather your family's been in this trade for a long time.

-Oh, yes, quite a few centuries.

-Centuries?

-Oh, yeah -

I've got a family history going back to 14-something.

-Golly, OK.

-So it's quite a thing, yeah.

Unfortunately, I'm the last of the line, sort of thing, really.

-Are you really?

-I've got a brother, but he's a bit older than me

and he went in the Navy so he's not interested at all.

So it's a perfect example of a craft that's coming right to the point

where nobody is going to know how to do it any more.

I suppose what happened was that when rubber tyres came in

in the late 19th, early 20th-century

that was, sort of, the end of the wooden wheel.

One of my favourite books about craft

is a book called The Wheelwright's Shop,

just like here, by an author named George Sturt.

It was written about 100 years ago and he very lovingly describes

all the processes that go into this beautiful, beautiful craft.

My father was the last working wheelwright in West Sussex.

This is my father aged three.

That's my grandfather

and these are all master wheelwright cabinet-makers

and this chap here with the bowler hat is the foreman.

I wonder how it makes you feel,

this idea is you being the last in the line of people going back

all these centuries to practise this great trade.

Well, sad in some ways, I suppose,

because unlike today where they can press a button

and a computerised machine can spit out anything you want,

it's all exactly the same, whereas wheelwrights,

from one village to one town, had their own little ideas

and characteristics that those individuals put into it.

It's almost like the fingerprint of the maker

is all over that wagon, isn't it? It's really interesting.

Want to save this skill from extinction?

Wheelwright's apprentice needed right now.

Must been keen and like working with wood.

You know where to get in touch.

If you want to join my handmade revolution,

you can find out more information by going on to bbc.co.uk/handmade.

Another skill being re-imagined for today is glass.

Next for Piyush is Caroline Moiret.

Can she charm him and steal the show?

I love the colours. Tell me more about this.

Right, well, I'm really influenced by sky and sea and natural colours.

I think that they work really well with glass.

For me, they're just absolutely magical. They just...

Nothing else quite does it for me like glass.

-So you're inspired by nature?

-Yeah.

-How did you get these textures,

those beautiful textures in the glass?

I usually start with sheets of glass

and I work the designs into those sheets of glass with firings

and layering up glass on the top, different types of glass.

You know that fused glass

is the primary method for nearly 2,000 years.

-Absolutely.

-They used to use for making small glass objects.

I know that and, you know, when I'm working like this,

it's so magical that I'm working in a way

that's been done since the ancient Egyptians

and sometimes I get a, sort of, magical moment when I think,

"This is just incredible, you know,

"that I'm working in something

"that has such a long, continuous tradition."

But why glass? What's your background?

It's the magic, it's the way light interacts with colour.

I mean, every other material stops the light.

You know, I love pottery and things like that,

but it's always frustrating because the light won't go through

and I also wanted to limit myself to what I could do in my garden shed.

How do you relate the size of this object

and the colours with your theme behind it?

There's a sort of tension between delicacy and strength.

I think what's going on inside is delicate but the outside is strong -

maybe that's about me, I don't know, or about life, I don't know.

What I see from outside is such a clean shape,

but inside, these textures,

there's a turmoil of emotions going inside, probably not communicating.

-Maybe.

-You know? Just keeping it a very calm exterior,

but inside just boiling, so that has to come out.

Right. Good point, yeah. That's my next piece.

I see that you are very passionate and your work is fantastic

so why don't you think of taking it as a full-time profession?

Well, I... I need to make a living

and it's a bit chicken and egg, isn't it?

So you think you can't make a living out of being a glass professional?

Well, I couldn't make this in the kiln I have at home.

It's simply not big enough so, basically,

I need some money to buy myself a bigger kiln.

-SHE LAUGHS

-Please!

Is it about confidence?

I'm afraid so, yeah. I'm... I need...

Yeah, I'm not very confident about my work.

I think a lot of galleries would be very interested to know

what's the idea, what's the inspiration behind it,

so I do think you should apply to a lot of galleries

and show them your work.

Yeah.

Thank you for saying that. Yeah, you're right. I know you're right.

-The worst thing they'll say is no.

-Yeah.

I think Caroline should be far more confident,

given the quality and the beauty of her work.

What did I think he thought of it?

I don't know.

What did you think of it?

Piyush can clearly see her work selling in high-end galleries

and I completely agree.

I've seen pieces like this on sale for many hundreds of pounds

and I think Caroline needs to aim high.

Some of today's talented makers

may well be crafting the antiques of the future

and certainly the work of their forerunners generations earlier,

when it comes up for sale today in auction, can command huge prices.

Caroline is working in the right medium

as glass is hugely collectable.

A rare handmade Galle goblet recently came up for auction.

Emile Galle was a glass artist with an international reputation.

He was at the forefront of the emerging Art Nouveau movement,

inspired by the romantic landscapes and flowers from his native France.

Here we have a Galle cameo

and mould-blown goblet,

that also has wheel-carved detail on it.

This would have been blown into a mould with cameo glass.

The process it involved is acid etching

so you mask out the pattern that you want to

and then you put the whole thing in hydrochloric acid,

which actually eats through glass, so it's quite a skilful process,

and then this would leave the tooth marks, if you like, here.

This little goblet is small,

but I think, when you look at the values on Galle pieces,

you take into account the amount of work and effort

that's gone into them and it is the wheel carving

that adds the value to it because someone has individually sat down

and carved all that lovely detail on it to give that sense of depth.

The estimate is 1,000-1,500

and I think that's a very reasonable

and attractive estimate on that piece.

But will any of the work from our up-and-coming makers

grace the galleries of the future?

The last finalist to face the judges is Helen Francis,

a 25-year-old designer who loves working with paper.

It's an unusual skill. Will it claim the judges' prize?

Helen, thank you so much for bringing this in.

I mean, I can imagine any girl

as a bride would love to go down the aisle with this.

It's really stunning and very special.

Just tell me a little bit, then,

about how you came up with the concept,

because it really looks quite unique to me.

I haven't seen anything quite like it before.

I got into making paper flowers from studying animation.

I found the medium of paper really easy to manipulate,

the colours really vibrant and I could get the perfect palette

that I liked and I discovered that

the crinkling effect that you get using paper created lovely petals,

so then I experimented with the flowers

and it kind of grew from there.

Tell me about making the individual flowers,

because how many are there in this bouquet?

There seem to be so many,

and I imagine each has got a different pattern, too.

You've got roses, peonies, little buds...

I actually hand draw out all the individual petals

and then cut around them and then layer each flower up.

So say for example, this one here - start with the ball.

I cover it with the paper and then I glue each side of the petal

and then I attach it so it's a kind of crimping effect

and then build up.

To get these very particular colours,

do you go around collecting different types of paper,

or how do you get your colour matches?

It's all one type of paper and it's just printed duplex paper.

-You laser print your paper?

-It's all laser printer paper

so it's got that waxy texture as well, in case there is

some rain, you know?

They can be outside and it is a little bit protected.

How do you cope with rain and paper flowers?

I mean, I could just imagine taking this to some outside event

-and it just goes all soggy. That would be my worry.

-Touch wood...

I haven't actually experienced rain and the paper flowers yet.

All the weddings that they have actually been featured in

have been sunny.

How long would it take you to make a bouquet like the one on the table?

Yes, this probably has taken me about three whole days,

but I do cut out pieces, all the petals,

on the train on my commute into work

and people think I'm mad, but that's fine.

The petal-cutting commute. How fantastic. How long is your journey?

-It's an hour.

-An hour is a long time,

-so you can cut out a fair few petals in that time.

-Yes, yes.

A lot of the work is the drawing of the petals and the cutting out,

so, yes, that takes out a lot of the time.

-Can you imagine it becoming a more serious thing for you?

-Yes.

I'd absolutely love for it to become a more serious thing,

cos at the moment this is my second job

and even to think about possibly doing this as my actual job

is just my dream.

When it comes to pricing your work, how do you go about that?

Because, as you say, it's many, many hours of work

and yet it's using quite a humble material,

so how do you marry the two up?

I think it's always one of those dilemmas within the crafting world.

I think if you actually measure up the hours that it takes you

to make these pieces and then you actually charge people how much...

-You know? It would be a fortune.

-It could run into hundreds.

Yes, it honestly could.

But people are willing to pay hundreds for wedding bouquets.

-You've given me some ideas for my own millinery.

-Thank you!

Thank you very much indeed. It's been really lovely

talking to a fellow flower maker and I think we're going to have to stop

because I can see the butterflies and the bees descending

thinking it looks a rather nice place to land.

Several hundred pounds is a good price

and working with paper is a long and noble tradition.

But could her work be an antique of the future?

Even to be here today and one of the finalists is fantastic

and having this exposure is incredible.

Some of our craft traditions go back centuries,

while others are more recent developments.

The Industrial Revolution saw the expansion of the British waterways

as a means of transporting goods

from one end of the country to the other

and the people who worked on the water often lived on the water

and they devised a unique way of decorating their waterborne homes.

Jane Marshall and her husband Pete

live on the Shropshire Union Canal on a Birmingham cargo boat.

Living on the water led Jane to develop a passion

for narrow-boat art.

-Jane? Hello. This is so beautiful.

-Hi, Paul.

-Lovely to meet you.

-Thank you, nice to meet you, too.

-What a spot - look at this!

Jane teaches the techniques to handmade revolutionaries of all ages

and now she's going to help me show you the ropes.

Started in the 1830s, narrow-boat art is one of those folk crafts

that has remained pretty much unchanged.

The old working narrow boats were painted with roses and castles,

as they were, in effect, trading vessels

and the idea was to draw attention to the boats

as they passed along the waterways.

Jane is preserving these traditions in her work.

I want to just show you a few pictures.

These were painted by the boat painters of the past.

You can have a bridge and a lake coming forward and mountains and sky

and it can be as simple as you like, really.

-First of all we are going to put the background in.

-OK.

-So, working on this board...

-My little panel.

-Yes.

-If you just draw out roughly...

-What kind of image I want?

Yes, what you want and then you can refer to that.

-There's my bridge.

-That's right.

Put some paint on the palette.

-All of these paints are very bright enamels.

-Yes, they are.

There are actually sign-writing paints

and they are very quick drying.

Why do you consider this a craft and not an art?

I think it's because it's done in stages.

It's done to a bit of a formula, really.

There is - there's a system, isn't there?

The castles are quite naive, the flowers are quite naive,

I think, because of the way it developed.

Some of the painting was done by boat-yard painters

and some was done by the boatmen themselves

and a lot of it was done by people who worked at the boat yards as well.

Yes, these are people with no academic training in fine art.

Yeah, apprenticed to the boat painters.

Narrow-boat art focuses on two main images - roses and castles.

They were supposed to imply wealth and abundance -

the boatmen were literally painting their status in society

onto their narrow boats.

Why, particularly, images of castles and roses?

Well, I think it's probably because in Victorian times,

there was a lot of romantic scenes on pottery of the time.

I think the young gentlemen

when they used to go on their grand tours round the continent,

used to bring back these wonderful scenes.

The fact that there's a simple template

means anyone can give this a try.

-Now we're going to go on to roses.

-OK. We'll leave that to dry.

-Leave that to dry, yes.

-Right.

We do this in stages and I've got a stages board.

Right. On your tray, we'll do one of each colour. Put the leaves on.

The next stage is putting the bases to the flowers on

and you can see that they've got a shading, a darker shading.

Yes, you can see how this evolves, can't you?

It gives them a sort of roundness, three-dimensionality about it.

And then the final stages - this is the difficult bit -

-putting the petals on.

-Oh, I can imagine.

-We're going to leave that now to dry.

-Shall I put it on the boat?

Put it on the boat.

Narrow-boat art came about after Britain's canal system

expanded rapidly in the 18th century,

during a building programme which became known as "canal mania".

But with the dawn of the rail network,

times got harder for the river people.

Boat owners would lay men off and instead move their family aboard

to work as unpaid crew.

Jane's husband Pete is interested in this social history.

The original working boats, most of the boat was for carrying cargo.

-It was quite important.

-Valuable space.

-Exactly, yes.

So the original horse-drawn boats,

they would have a cabin roughly ten foot long

and that would be

for whoever was living on it - could be a big family.

Then when they put engines in the boats

another ten foot or so would be used for the engine,

which, of course, is also a valuable space.

Would a narrow boat like this one

be as beautifully decorated inside as it was outside?

Yes, the little back cabins they lived in,

they would have decoration on the doors, there would be the table

that comes down from the cupboard would be decorated when it was up.

It was when the railways came along that families moved on board

and therefore it became more of a home, a permanent home.

-And they prettied them up. Do you enjoy living on this?

-Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I don't think you'd do it if you didn't enjoy it.

I mean, it is a fairly small space compared with a house

so you've got to like boats, really, to take that on.

Some people give it a go and then they find it's not for them,

but we've been doing it quite a long time now.

Narrow boat owners were often labelled

"dirty bargees" by the land dwellers.

They challenged this perception by turning their boats

into floating examples of arts and crafts.

Painting narrow boats in this tradition of castles and roses

has been preserved ever since.

Have you ever wanted to experiment with different styles?

Well, I look at the boat-painter's styles

and they do influence the way I do things.

I wouldn't change any of the basic things

because that's part of the tradition, really.

-Yes, yes. And long may it continue.

-Yes.

Well, yes and I think that is one reason

why the canals have kept going

because, in the '60s, they were going into decline

and the colourfulness of it all

probably just helped to keep them in the forefront.

These vivid colours and simple images

not only drew the eye to the boat as a business,

they also helped keep narrow boating alive during lean times.

It just goes to show the power that everyday art can wield.

-You've had quite a lot of practice at that now.

-Oh, you're bullying me.

I AM bullying you! Right, leave it. Don't fiddle with it.

-Leave it. It's a bit better.

-OK!

Oh, I've just smudged one of my leaves!

-How's that?

-That's fantastic, Paul.

-Is it?

It looks better from a distance.

A mile away, it'll look really good.

-There's my castles now.

-Great. Well done.

-But I'm really, really proud of this.

-Yes, you should be.

And there is a method to this which you must follow.

Jane lives and breathes her craft

and by passing on her skills to the next generation,

she's keeping this craft tradition well and truly alive.

So go on, give it a go - get painting, get making

and join our handmade revolution.

There's a skill out there for everyone,

from narrow-boat art to textiles,

you just need to find one that suits you.

Now it is crunch time for today's five finalists.

None of these people have the first idea what is at stake.

One lucky maker is going to get the chance to have their piece displayed

in the Victoria and Albert Museum,

the spiritual home of the arts and crafts.

It's time for the judges to begin their deliberations.

They've got their work cut out.

Well, Mary Jane, Piyush. Here we are with our five finalists.

Can you tell me a little bit about each of them?

Lucy...

for her, decoupage is a real lifeline.

She cares full-time for her young daughter

and the bright colours and the vivid nature of her work

is really important to her.

Just normal people like me are making things and they can do it.

Cos everyone thinks you have to go to all these art colleges

and blah blah blah, but you don't -

it's just normal people just making things.

David, he works with wood.

It's his profession as well as his passion

and he just loves making these quirky objects.

I've been really dumbfounded by the response from everybody

so to be the judges' favourite as well would be absolutely phenomenal.

Helen's flowers are beautifully made -

I'm a flower-maker myself, I do mine in fabric -

so I could understand her technique. A very crafted piece.

This has been a fantastic opportunity even being a finalist.

I'm so proud of myself for even getting here.

To be the favourite would be incredible.

OK, Piyush. Maybe you could tell me a little bit about yours.

Well, this is Caroline. She's a psychotherapist

and she creates glass objects based on her relationship concepts.

It's been so good for me.

It gives me a centre and a grounding,

and when all else falls apart round me,

I'm really very happy that I've got something

that I can retreat into and that gives me a centre within myself.

This one is Janette and she's a garden designer by profession

so she wanted to create permanent sculptures

so she has taken to blacksmithing and metalwork.

I didn't expect to be selected. I just thought,

"You've got to go for everything, just see what happens."

If I was chosen as the judges' favourite

I think I'd just be shocked!

OK, so a difficult decision here, guys.

-Tricky.

-Maybe first you can go ahead and tell us

what do you think is really saying the most to you?

It's difficult, Glenn.

I thought I knew what I was going to go for,

but actually coming in and seeing the five objects

we've got in front of us, I'm actually a little bit torn.

My heart's saying one thing and my head's saying another.

So I think there are probably two contenders for me at the moment.

-So you feel a little bit conflicted?

-I do.

OK, maybe we can help you out with that. Piyush, what do you think?

Well, I'm very indecisive. I've been changing my decision every time.

Again, two contenders for me,

but something which is very cutesy, but I like it because of the concept

and, secondly, I see the passion and dedication in the craft as well,

so I think I would go for more attention to detail, probably.

So we have attention to detail, technical skill,

we have the charm factor and then of course we have the ideas...

-And the "wow".

-And the "wow" factor as well.

I think for me, really, it's both the sense of personal style

and also the sense of, I guess, an object that really says something,

that really has a message. So here we have makers who are bringing ideas

from their professional lives into their hobby.

Yes, because that's their passion and that's what they want to create.

Right, that's a great thing to see in anybody taking up a craft -

what do they really care about?

-Definitely.

-Are we ready to talk to Paul? What do you say?

-I think we've probably come to a mutual decision.

-Definitely.

-All right.

-Amazing.

Have our judges reached a unanimous verdict?

I'm sure it hasn't been easy, but have you reached your decision?

-Yes, we have, Paul.

-Right, it's time to get the finalists in.

Well, you've all done remarkably well to come so far

and I think it's important that you know

your talent, your skill and your passion for what you do

is evident in all the wonderful things you've created for us.

I can now reveal who the judges' favourite is,

but before I do that,

I want to let you know what's in store for that person.

You have the opportunity to have your work put on display

in the V&A shop at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London,

the spiritual home of arts and crafts.

Whatever today's outcome,

you're all fully fledged members of the handmade revolution.

Well, here is the judges' decision.

The judges thought their favourite piece

is a difficult craft to master, the concept tells a story

and it gets everybody talking.

So it gives me pleasure to announce today's judges' favourite.

And that decision is...

..Caroline with her glass sculpture. Well done.

It was absolutely marvellous, it really was.

-Your work's going to be in the V&A.

-Wow!

'Caroline is a worthy winner - her glass sculpture is stunning

'and I'm sure when she sees it on display

'it will give her the confidence boost she needs

'to take her craft forward.'

Well, it's been so exciting for me to see such exceptional talent,

but there's no time for complacency -

I'm asking you to get involved.

Come on - join the handmade revolution!